


Rough, Like Coals

by GemmaRose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Boys Kissing, Drowning, Drunken Confessions, Drunken Kissing, Formalwear, Gay Keith (Voltron), Kissing, Lance (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, Making Out, Near Death Experiences, Public Display of Affection, Recreational Drug Use, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 01:18:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11772468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: It’s kinda cute, the way Lance seems to think Keith needs some convoluted reason to kiss him.





	Rough, Like Coals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [melonbug](https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbug/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Smooth, Like Water](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10737774) by [melonbug](https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbug/pseuds/melonbug). 



> Written for the [VLD Fanfic Remix](https://vldfanficremix2017.tumblr.com) event on tumblr. Hope you like it, Melon!

Keith liked water, he liked swimming. He wasn’t particularly great at it, but growing up the best summer days had been ones spent at the pool, even if he came home an angry red all over from forgetting to put on enough sunscreen. So finding Lance and Hunk last, on a water planet, he’d been with the rest of the team in all but begging Shiro and Allura to give them at least a few hours, or vargas, or whatever to relax and enjoy a dip in an alien ocean. It was Coran who’d gotten the both of them to agree, though he himself had confessed he wasn’t all that fond of open ocean and as such had stayed on the castle.

Keith sighed, kicking his legs out and spreading his arms to float face up. Shiro had declined to get in the water on account of the bandaged gashes under his vest, Hunk had said something about having had enough of the water for a month, and Allura was sitting near Shiro so they could both talk to the local alien queen, but the rest of them were in the water. Keith smiled, and tilted his face towards the sun. They were all safe, all accounted for, he could just float here and-

Webbed hands grabbed him just under the ribs, and his head was underwater before he had a chance to shout in surprise. He struggled free of the alien’s grip, only for it to screech in his ear and latch back on tighter, this time pinning his arms to his sides as it dragged him ever further down. His chest burned, he had to breathe, but there was no air, only water pressing in on all sides. The alien’s grip abruptly tightened, and he instinctively gasped. Water flooded down his throat, burning all the way down, and he coughed, retched, but he could feel his struggles growing weaker as his muscles starved for oxygen. He barely spotted the lean, familiar figure cutting through the water towards him before his vision went black.

-

As it turned out, alien seawater burned just as much coming back up as it did going down. Keith gasped for air between retches, kept upright only by the arms around his aching chest, and when he felt like he could breathe without feeling the ocean pressing down his throat he looked up at Lance with what he hoped was a grateful smile. Lance looked stunned, by what Keith wasn’t sure, but he didn’t have long to muse on it because the aliens were still attacking and since his probably-fractured sternum didn’t keep him from running he scrambled to his feet and after Lance, Pidge hot on their heels.

Later, after he came out of the cryo-pod with his ribcage back in one piece, he sprawled on his bed and touched his lips. Lance had given him CPR, that was why he was still alive. From what he remembered of the water crash-landing part of their survival course at the Garrison, CPR involved mouth to mouth. Which meant Lance had kinda kissed him, even if only to force the water out of his lungs.

Fuck. He rolled over, and buried his face in his pillow. He was an old pro at ignoring crushes, and Lance had made it easy from day one with his silly (endearing) made-up rivalry. The look of relief on his face when Keith helped him up after they defeated Sendak had been hard enough to get over, but this? The expression of surprise, of _wonder_ he’d had when Keith looked up at him? This was going to be next to impossible to hide during training.

\---

Keith wasn’t sure he he was grateful or disappointed when Lance acted like nothing had changed, after that. He lashed out more, pushed taunts and challenges at Keith that he couldn’t help but rise to despite Shiro’s tired sighs, and Keith pulled his frustration to the forefront so he wouldn’t do something extra stupid like reach out and feel how soft Lance’s hair was, or get caught staring when he smiled. It was especially hard when Lance dolled himself up, taking his sharp, handsome face and elegant frame and adding makeup and altean formalwear which, invariably, fit him obscenely well.

So when Allura insisted that they not wear their armour and flight suits for their latest diplomatic whatever, of course he’d argued. Uniforms were perfectly acceptable attire for formal events back on Earth, and if he had to spend all night around Lance in a perfectly tailored suit he thought he might combust. Shiro, the traitor, had undercut his objection by pointing out that they their suits were active duty uniforms, not dress ones, and Allura had showed him personally to the storage area Lance had apparently been raiding on occasion.

He’d left the outfit-choosing to Shiro, since he had literally zero experience with formalwear, and that was how he’d wound up with this stupid getup. The pants were alright, being loose-legged and something like the slacks one of his foster parents had made him wear to church, but the shirt was annoying. It clung to him from wrist to neck to waist, the only loose part being the little half-cape that attached at the shoulders and hung to his hips. He would so, _so_ prefer to be in his armour. Sure the flight suits were form-fitting, but at least they had a layer of protective padding so he didn’t feel exposed.

“Are you sure this is the only thing you could find in red?” he grumbled to Shiro as they approached the ballroom, tugging at the high collar. “It feels like it’s choking me.”

“Only thing close to your size.” Shiro shrugged. His own shirt had a similar pattern, with a thick white stripe down each side under the arm and purple accents at the hems, but he had a wide collar resembling the Voltron V and no stupid cape.

“You just wanted to make me look like an idiot.” he muttered, and Shiro ruffled his hair.

“Never.” he insisted with a straight face, but Keith could hear the smile in his voice. “I think you look good with a cape.”

“This is my punishment for not picking out my own clothes, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.” Shiro admitted cheerfully. “Now go, socialize.” he made a shooing motion as they entered the ballroom, and Keith flipped him off once his back was turned. He scanned the crowd, picking out the rest of the team. Hunk and Pidge were easy to find, Pidge in a green dress with a neckline like Shiro’s and short loose sleeves while Hunk was wearing something closer to Keith’s own outfit but in yellow and without sleeves at all. Allura and Coran were a bit trickier to spot, having turned blue and assumed a build more like that of the locals for the occasion, but their hair stood out amidst the dark cool colours.

Keith made his way around the edge of the gala, skirting kissing couples of aliens and scanning for Lance. When he finally spotted the Blue Paladin, he stopped and sucked in a breath through his teeth. His shirt, and Hunk’s, and Shiro’s were all tightly fitted like their flight suits and patterned with dark panels of their respective colours broken up by white stripes down their sides and vibrant colour at the hems. Lance, or course, just had to break the mould.

His pants weren’t black slacks but something more like leggings the deep blue-purple of space, with stars and galaxies swirling lazily up his long legs and drawing the eye to his tunic. In contrast to the leggings, his top was floaty and more shades of blue than Keith could count. It flowed around him like water as he talked animatedly with the aliens, the layers of translucent blue fabric occasionally shifting far enough to reveal a bright green-blue layer which clung to his torso underneath it all like a second skin.

Keith quickly looked away, fixing his eyes on Shiro and Allura halfway across the hall. Sure, Shiro had said to socialize, but what was he supposed to say? He wasn’t a storyteller like Lance, couldn’t talk about tech things like Hunk and Pidge or tactics like Shiro. All he was good at was fighting and flying, and these people barely had a concept of conflict let alone combat. Keith grabbed one corner of his cape and fiddled with it, debating whether or not it’d be worth Allura’s inevitable scolding to hack the damn thing off with his dagger. Deciding against it, he released the fabric and crossed his arms instead, keeping half an eye on the party but mostly just zoning out.

“Hey.” Lance whispered, and it took every ounce of control Keith had not to startle as the Blue Paladin leaned up against the wall next to him. Was he wearing cologne? He smelled like that water planet Keith had almost drowned on, salt and clean air and other things Keith couldn’t name. “I need you to, uhhh...” he leaned in even closer, his voice dipping low. “I need you to kiss me real quick.”

Keith jerked away from the wall, arms falling to his sides. “What?” he hissed, and was privately proud he hadn’t squeaked. He glanced out into the party and spotted Allura, hands clasped with one of the aliens. How had he not noticed before, the way the alcoves were so dimly lit? “This-” the words caught in his throat, unfounded hope making him almost reluctant to say them, and he rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. “This hardly seems the place, Lance.” he said, aiming for placating and probably missing by a mile.

“They, uh-” Lance’s eyes flickered to something over Keith’s shoulder, and he would’ve glanced to see what it was but Lance’s face was so close, pupils wide in the low light, lips slightly shimmery with some sort of makeup. “Okay so, they saw us bickering, right? As we do.” he explained, tunic making soft sounds as the layers of fabric rubbed against each other with each movement of his arms.

Keith nodded, recalling the petty whispered argument they’d been embroiled in while Allura accepted the invitation to this gala. He couldn’t even remember what it had been about, or who’d won, but he remembered the way Lance’s mouth had curled around his name.

“So they saw us, right? And they sorta think we hate each other now. And you can see how they are.” Lance gestured at something behind Keith, and this time he looked over his shoulder to see what it was. Three aliens were standing nearby, sorta petting each other with slow, exaggerated movements. He snorted. Of course aliens with no concept of conflict would be baffled by how the two of them got along.

“Okay, but listen, I was trying to diffuse the situation, right, because ‘diplomacy,’ and I might have made them think we were together. Like, together together.” Lance babbled, and Keith’s heart sped up in his chest. "So, they probably need us to prove it, right, I mean, look at them." Lance continued, and Keith glanced at the aliens again, now trading quick kisses between exaggerated arm motions. "So we need to kiss. Because diplomacy."

Lance scratched at his jaw under his ear, and Keith narrowed his eyes slightly so they wouldn’t fly open wide. That was his most obvious tell, the one that let Coran beat him at poker every damn time. But why would Lance lie about aliens thinking they were dating? Why would he say they needed to kiss? Unless...

Keith looked at the aliens again, a smile spreading on his face as his cheeks heated. Unless Lance liked him the same way, and had no idea Keith was into him. “Okay.” he said simply, turning back to look at Lance.

“I- what? Really?” Lance’s eyes widened.

“Sure.” Keith said as casually as he could manage, reaching out to grab the beaded collar of his fancy tunic. Lance didn’t resist being pulled, only stopping when they stood less than an inch apart. This close, Keith could smell nothing but Lance’s cologne, see nothing but his eyes, and his breath nearly caught in his throat. Lance’s shoulders were tense, his whole body stiff and unmistakably nervous. “Diplomacy, right?” Keith breathed, so close he could practically feel the heat from Lance’s face as it darkened with blush.

He leaned in and kissed Lance, gentle for only the briefest second before he had one hand on Lance’s waist and the other on the back of his neck to keep him close as he deepened it. Lance pressed against him, relaxing utterly, and returned the kiss with more enthusiasm than Keith had expected. It was only a few steps to the wall, and he pushed Lance up against it almost desperately. The sounds Lance was making were downright dangerous, breathy little things that filled the sliver of space between them whenever they parted for air. A man could get addicted to that type of noise, and when a high sound from Lance was muffled by their kiss Keith’s hand slipped down to Lance’s hip.

Someone cleared their throat off to the side, and Keith pulled away to see Shiro giving him a Look. Lance tensed, then cleared his throat and Keith stepped back to give him some space. “So, yeah, I think that was enough.” he said quickly, face still that beautiful dark red. “To uhh, prove to the aliens what I said, okay, bye, I'm out.” he hurried off into the crowd, and Keith turned to Shiro with a sheepish smile.

“I don’t have to remind you about fraternization laws, do I?” he asked pointedly.

“We’re not even on Earth!” Keith exclaimed. “And Lance started it anyways.” he crossed his arms and looked away, fully aware that he was pouting like a child.

“Just-” Shiro sighed, and Keith looked to see him pinching the bridge of his nose with his prosthetic hand. “Remember that you two are teammates first. If you two get in a lover’s spat and we can’t form Voltron because of it-”

“That won’t be a problem.” Keith insisted, arms falling to his sides. “It was just a kiss, Shiro.” he grabbed the edge of his dumb little cape and started fiddling with it, looking at his hands instead of his friend’s face. “Probably won’t even happen again.”

“I somehow doubt that.” Shiro said drily.

\---

Keith had always thought the buddy system was stupid, ever since he was a kid and being forced to use it on field trips. Back then he’d always been able to ditch his partner and claim they got separated in a crowd, but Shiro knew better than to buy that and trying to pin the blame on Lance would only get them both in trouble. And so he was stuck walking around a space mall, with Lance trailing after him trying to bait him into a fight.

“What’s so important about your stupid dagger, anyway?” Lance asked, and Keith tensed, reflexively reaching to grip the hilt where it stuck out of an under-arm holster he’d found in his room on the castle. Lance snorted, walking up next to him. “I’m not an idiot, Keith. I saw you talking to that knife guy back there when you thought I wasn’t looking.”

Damn, so pointing him at a humanoid alien hadn’t been enough. Keith scowled at him, and just before he could snap that it was none of Lance’s damn business his friend blushed. 

“I need you to kiss me.” he blurted, and Keith’s heart leapt in his chest. The way Lance had avoided him after that gala, he’d been dead certain that he’d decided he wasn’t into Keith after all.

“Okay.” he responded, wetting his lips unthinkingly.

“There are, um-” Lance’s face darkened further. “Oh, there are galra!” he gestured wildly with his arms. “Back there, behind you.”

Keith, frowned, and started turning to call Lance’s dumb bluff when Lance caught him by the wrist and pulled him back around. “Don’t look.” he stage-whispered. “They’re- they’re probably agents of Zarkon. They might recognize us, you know?”

Keith nodded slowly, brows drawing together. Why was Lance so insistent on this stupid charade? Did he think Keith had faked that kiss at the gala?

“So we need to be, uh, incognito.” Lance finished lamely.

“Okay.” Keith repeated with a nod. Lance all but surged forward, grabbing Keith by the shirt and kissing him desperately. Lance pulled him sideways, and they stumbled up against a wall in a narrow alcove between two kiosks selling, well, Keith wasn’t entirely sure what, and he wasn’t exactly paying attention with the way Lance was kissing him so fervently. He whined a little as his back hit the wall, pulling Lance closer. Lance’s tongue darted into his mouth, and he brought a hand up to thread his fingers in that short brown hair. It felt as soft as it looked, but he was barely able to register the sensation before Lance pulled away with a gasp.

“They’re, uh-” Lance licked his lips, panting slightly and looking away, back out into the mall. “I think they’re gone now.”

Keith frowned, trying to recall what lie Lance had spun this time. “The galra?” he asked, and Lance startled a bit.

“Oh! Yeah, the Galra.”

Keith held in a sigh, and looked over Lance’s shoulder. Whatever issue Lance had with him, it obviously wasn’t resolved yet. “Okay.” he said, and followed Lance back out of the alcove as Lance wiped his hands on his jeans. Part of him wanted to tell Lance that he’d kiss him without any excuses, but a larger part wanted to see how far Lance would take this, and what he’d come up with next.

\---

The next Lance Incident (Keith halfway thought he should start keeping count of them) was at another diplomatic event. Thankfully this time their armour was acceptable attire, since the local culture was based heavily in combat. They’d already been giving the galra hell when Voltron arrived, and with this alliance were promising aid in any protracted ground campaigns. Keith was watching Pidge ride around on one of the alien’s shoulders, apparently having impressed it with their ‘‘fighting spirit’’, when Lance sidled up to him with a sly smile.

“They kiss, you know.” he whispered, his voice sending shivers down Keith’s spine. “To prove their rivalry.”

“Funny.” Keith smirked at Lance’s most transparent lie yet, turning and stepping into Lance’s space, backing him up against the wall. “Since we’re rivals and all.”

“Yeah.” Lance breathed, the low light in this corner of the room not quite masking how his cheeks burned the most beautiful shade of red. “We’re rivals and all.”

Keith pinned him against the wall and kissed him, moaning softly when Lance’s gloved hands tangled in his hair. He kissed Lance hard, bit at his lips, pressed their bodies together hip to chest. “Let me show them how much I can’t stand you.” he murmured when they first parted to breathe, and the needy little noise that came from Lance’s lips had Keith crashing back into them again. The soft, barely-there noises were intoxicating, and Keith’s blood sang every time he teased another one out.

He wasn’t sure how long they stood there, Lance clutching at his hair and Keith clutching at Lance’s waist, but when they pulled apart for the final time Lance’s lips were dark and shiny, his whole face Keith’s new favourite colour. Lance mumbled something about needing a drink, and Keith sagged against the wall in his absence. A quiet chuckle slipped out, and he lifted a hand to smooth his hair back. If he was lucky, a drink wasn’t the only thing Lance was thirsty for.

\---

“Hey, Keith?” Hunk poked his head into Keith’s room, and he looked up from cleaning dust out of an interior part of his bayard with a small sound. “I’ve got, uh, kinda a weird question.”

“Shoot.” he said, shutting the panel and turning his attention to Hunk.

Hunk stepped into the room, followed by Lance and Pidge, and the door shut behind them. “So, would you say that Shiro is the kind of guy who can have a good time?”

Keith tilted his head slightly. “Define good time.” he said slowly.

“Would he be willing to get drunk with us?” Pidge asked, a mischievous smile tugging at their mouth.

Keith pursed his lips, and after a moment shook his head. Shiro had never been fond of alcohol, and even before the galra he’d preferred to be considered straight-laced so nobody ever suspected him of all the mischief he’d gotten up to with Matt. “He’s a bit of a stick in the mud.”

“Okay.” Hunk nodded, and grinned at Lance and Pidge. “Meet up the common room?”

“What for?” Keith asked, putting his bayard down on his bed.

“To get drunk, duh!” Lance crowed, grabbing Keith by the wrist with a wide smile. Keith let himself be pulled along, and when they reached the common room he sat down near the end of the long low table in the middle of the sunken couches. Lance flopped to the floor in the middle of the opposite side, and Pidge perched on arm of the couch behind him. Hunk arrived a minute later, and placed a large glittery bottle on the table with a flourish as he sat down more or less across from Lance.

“What is that?” Pidge asked, and Keith looked up to see them eyeing the bottle with something like suspicion.

Hunk grinned and picked the bottle up by the neck, tossing it from one hand to the other. The label looked fancy, even if it was in a language he couldn’t read, and as the bottle shifted Keith realized it was clear. The liquid contents, now in motion, were what was pink and shimmery. “This.” Hunk declared, catching and holding the bottle in one hand. “Is a gift. From Coran.”

“No way.” Lance gasped, leaning towards Hunk and reaching out like he wanted to grab the bottle. Hunk handed it over to Keith instead, and he accepted it with both hands. “I thought this was-” Lance started, only to fall silent as Hunk gave a grin that would honestly look more at home on Shiro.

“It is.” Hunk nodded. “Coran said, and I quote, ‘I was a young lad once, too.’ He gave it to me after our last space mall outing.”

“Huh.” Keith turned the bottle in his hands, tilting it sideways to make the liquid inside shimmer almost violently. He’d seen gifs online of drinks which shone like this, but never so vibrantly coloured. “So this is alcohol?” he asked.

“ _Alien_ alcohol!” Pidge exclaimed, dropping off the arm to snatch the bottle from Keith’s hands and flopping back down on the couch properly.

“Better.” Hunk promised, his grin growing wider. “Coran said it's safe, but it is one hundred percent guaranteed to-”

“Fuck us up?” Lance suggested.

“But it’ll get us drunk, right?” Pidge asked, holding the bottle in front of their face, eyes locked on the swirling contents.

“I don’t know.” Hunk shrugged. “I guess we'll have to find out? His only warning was that we should take it easy.”

“Wait.” Keith said quickly, reaching out to grab the bottle from Pidge’s hands. Pidge held it out of his reach, giving him a Look so much like Shiro’s they’d either practiced it or both of them were copying it from the same person. “We need to be alert, in case we get attacked or-”

“You’re more of a stick in the mud than Shiro is, Keith.” Lance interrupted with a roll of his eyes as Pidge scooted along the couch over to Hunk’s other side. “It’ll be fine.”

Pidge’s grin bordered on dangerous as they struggled with the strange cap on the bottle. “I can, in fact, confirm that we should be fine.” they said confidently, which didn’t assuage Keith’s rising worries too terribly much. “When we pilot the Lions, they connect to us mentally.” Pidge continued, wedging the bottle between their thighs with one hand for better leverage and gesturing at their head with the other. “Have you ever noticed how, even if we're so tired we can barely think, we're always somehow at peak efficiency when piloting?”

Keith thought about those hellish hours running from Zarkon, about how easy it had been to fly Red out into the storm and form Voltron with the others, and how quickly he’d collapsed after they returned to the castle.

“The mental connection fills in the gaps, so to speak.” Pidge finished, returning both hands to the task of figuring out how to open the dang lid. Keith idly wondered if it was difficult on purpose, to make it harder to get into when drunk.

“So we should be fine, Keith.” Lance smirked, more playful than anything else.

Keith shrugged. If Shiro found them he would 100% take advantage of the situation to prank them mercilessly, but that was a risk he was willing to take. “Okay then, let’s get 'fucked up'.”

Lance snorted, and Keith almost missed Pidge finally getting the bottle open because of it. A cloud of shimmery steam erupted from the now open neck, and Hunk plucked it from Pidge’s hands before they could lift it from their lap.

“Hold on, Pidge.” Hunk frowned. “You’re not even old enough to drink.”

“I’m sixteen.” they huffed, scowling at Hunk. “I'm old enough to pilot a giant Lion in an intergalactic war, aren't I? Besides, there’s no drinking age in space, Hunk. It’s space. And Coran said it was safe.”

Hunk looked at the bottle for a few seconds with a pensive expression, then held it back out to Pidge. “Fair enough.” he conceded. “I'll let you have the honors of the first sip, then.”

Pidge snatched it, using both hands to hold it as they took a huge swig. So much for taking it easy. “Oh!” they gasped when they lowered the bottle, voice sharp and high. Hunk pulled the bottle easily from their grip, and Lance leaned over the table making grabby hands.

“Oooh! Me next, me next!” he exclaimed, and Hunk handed it over. He took a roughly equal drink, and when he lowered it his eyes were wide. “Huh.” he muttered, looking around the room with utter fascination. Hunk pulled the bottle from his hands, and held it out to Keith.

Keith took it, and stared at the shimmering, swirling liquid for a second before raising it to his lips and taking a deep swallow. It was cold going down despite the bottle being pretty solidly room-temperature in his hand, bubblegum-sweet on his tongue and fizzy like coke. Hunk pulled the bottle from his hand, and when Keith tried to glare at him he found himself staring instead. Hunk was shining, the whole room glimmered but Hunk shone like one of those tacky plastic lawn ornaments with a light bulb inside. Only, Hunk wasn’t tacky, he was incredible.

Hunk took two or three swallows, then let Pidge steal the bottle from him as he looked around with wide eyes. This, this was definitely the good stuff. Keith passingly thought he would probably have a killer hangover tomorrow, but when the bottle was passed back to him he brushed that thought aside and matched Hunk by taking two large gulps. Hunk had barely taken it from him when the room seemed to twist, infinite nameless colours exploding into existence, and Keith leaned back on his hands to enjoy the show.

Slowly, he turned to look at each of his friends in turn. Pidge, now sprawled on their back on the sofa, was practically dripping with shades of green; their upraised arms grew like trees towards the ceiling, hair replaced by a crown of golden leaves, vines sprouting from their legs and taking root in the couch. Next to them was Hunk, plastic shell gone to show the purest light Keith had ever seen. A sense of one-ness permeated his body, and the thought crossed Keith’s mind that he was seeing his friends at their most raw, the cores of their very beings. Pidge was growth and endless newness, Hunk was light and filigree clockwork and shining molten metal, and Lance-

Keith turned his head further to look at Lance, and actually gasped. Lance was beautiful, and yeah Hunk was saying that right now but the word wasn’t quite enough. Lance was water, was an ocean, his hair like waves and his smile like- like- fuck, Keith didn’t know but it looked like it belonged in National Geographic. Lance shook his hands, droplets flying from his fingertips and hitting the floor as hail, shattering on impact with a sound like crystal. “I am so beautiful.” he agreed with Hunk, words spilling from his lips like rain, like a waterfall.

Keith wondered what his own voice would look like, and finally thought to check what had been revealed of his own soul. He looked down, and was momentarily entranced by how his skin shifted, curved plates of black breaking and re-forming with every minute shift, sparks and shimmers of red and orange and gold showing through every crack. He was magma, fire in its most ancient form, with embers falling from his sparkling fingertips and sparks drifting from the lava of his hair.

“I’ve never been so alive.” Pidge murmured, and Keith lifted his head. Lance was looking at him, naked wonder and longing in his icy eyes, and Keith smiled. Lance stood, wavered, the droplets that fell from his spread arms becoming snow for his feet to leave footprints in. Wasn’t he cold, standing in snow like that? He should warm up, like with a fire. Maybe he’d let Keith kiss him again to do just that.

Keith rose to his knees as Lance drew into arm’s reach, and pulled him down by simply grabbing his jacket and falling back to the floor. Lance toppled against him, straddling his lap, and his ocean skin felt arctic cold. “You’re on fire.” he murmured, rain spilling down Keith’s chest as his hands brushed strands of lava hair back over his shoulders, putting out flames Keith hadn’t even noticed dancing at the edge of his vision.

“You’re on fire, your lips are spilling fire, Keith.” Lance rambled, and Keith laughed. Of course he was fire, what else would he be?

The floating embers of his laugh settled against Lance’s face, clung to his cheeks and suffused his body with a soft glow for a second or two before burning out. It made the most beautiful colour Keith had ever seen.

“Keith, Keith-” Lance murmured, hands creeping closer to his neck.

“You’re so pretty, Lance.” Keith said, more embers rising from his lips as he spoke, illuminating Lance with that unearthly glow again. “You’re so beautiful.”

“I know.” Lance smiled, and Keith was left breathless for a moment because Lance’s smile was even more beautiful now that he was stripped down to his very core, the light of Keith’s voice making him shine. “I know.”

Keith laughed, lifting his head again and admiring the way Lance only glowed brighter. This was perfect. Lance was perfect.

“Keith.” he said, face and voice going serious for a moment before his shining smile came back. “Keith, you’re on fire.”

“Yeah. I know.” Keith said, content to watch the way those three little words danced around Lance’s head, reddening his face with their light before they turned to little more than ash rising on his thermals.

“I know, I know, but-” Lance pressed against him, nuzzling into his neck, and Keith knew his whole body glowed hotter because it illuminated Lance so beautifully. “I need the warmth.” Lance breathed, like a sprinkler spray against his shoulder. “I need to kiss you, put the fire out with my water, so you don't get hurt.”

Keith snorted. That was silly, how was he supposed to warm Lance up and make him shine if he burnt out? But he couldn’t deny a kiss, not when Lance was pressed against him and everything felt so _right_. “Sure.” he murmured, lifting a hand to the back of Lance neck and curling it there, delighting in how the waves of Lance’s hair crested against his fingers. “Sure, kiss me.”

When their lips met, Keith expected to taste seawater. Instead he tasted steam, his body heating to the point Lance began to boil everywhere they touched. Smoke billowed from his flaming hair, rising with flecks of ash to dance with Lance’s steam above them. He moaned softly into Lance’s mouth, and when his eyes slid open he lost what little breath he’d had left. Fuck, he had a new favourite colour.

“Keith.” Lance murmured against his lips, breathy and desperate and making Keith’s body burn in a way unrelated to the fact that he was made of magma. “I think I love you.”

“I think I love you too.” Keith breathed back, unable to stop himself from smiling. No more waiting for Lance to come up with some dumb excuse, no more pretending it meant nothing to either of them, no more watching bitterly as Lance flirted with aliens. Now he could date Lance, they could cuddle and kiss and whenever an alien made doe eyes at Lance for being so amazing Keith could wrap an arm around his waist and declare him off-limits.

Keith lifted the arm supporting him to wrap around Lance’s lower back, and pulled him into a kiss as he fell over. Lava alone was destruction, fire, death. But temper it with water, join the two together, and you made an island. And with an island you could make something new and beautiful. Together, they could make life.


End file.
